U.S.A. Gymnastics Still Values Medals More Than Girls

Members of the United States’ women’s gymnastics team at the Olympics in 2012. Four of the five have said they were abused by Larry Nassar.CreditCreditChang W. Lee/The New York Times

Update: On Jan. 24, Larry Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison for sexual abuse.

Larry Nassar is a monster who will be locked up for life. For that, we can thank the more than 150 young women who have given searing statements about the sexual abuse they endured, on top of the 60-year federal sentence he received last month for child pornography crimes.

Today AT&T, a major sponsor of U.S.A. Gymnastics, called the abuse suffered by these athletes “unconscionable” and announced that it is “suspending our sponsorship of the organization until it is rebuilt and we know that the athletes are in a safe environment.”

Good for them. The question is why U.S.A. Gymnastics, the national governing body that has known about the abuse since 2015, has yet to have a similar reckoning.

Dr. Nassar was the women’s team doctor of U.S.A. Gymnastics for two decades. We now know he used his sterling reputation to abuse hundreds of athletes on the national team, at Michigan State and at local clubs. He is not the only pedophile involved in the sport. A 2016 IndyStar investigation revealed that over 20 years, at least 368 gymnasts had claimed some form of sexual abuse by their coaches, gym owners or other adults — almost certainly a vast undercount of victims. This could not have happened without the gross negligence on the part of U.S.A. Gymnastics.

What the Nassar scandal has made glaringly apparent is that the organization consistently fails to act in the best interests of athletes. “Their biggest priority from the beginning and still today is their reputation, the medals they win and the money they make off of us,” Aly Raisman said in an interview with Outside the Lines last week.

The facts of the Nassar scandal make her point:

After concerns were raised about Dr. Nassar on June 17, 2015, it took the organization five weeks to contact the F.B.I., although it initially claimed it had done so “immediately.” It was only after an investigator hired by U.S.A. Gymnastics spoke with a third gymnast on July 24, 2015, a Friday, that she recommended the organization report to law enforcement. According to U.S.A. Gymnastics, it “contacted the F.B.I. on the next business day, Monday, July 27.” How considerate not to trouble the F.B.I. on the weekend.

Dr. Nassar was relieved of his assignments at U.S.A. Gymnastics two days later. But the organization did not contact Michigan State University or Twistars Gymnastics Club, whose athletes the doctor also treated and abused, and it has contended it did not have an obligation to do so. Dr. Nassar continued to see athletes, including Emma Ann Miller, whose last appointment was in 2016. “I’m possibly the last child he will assault,” Ms. Miller, now 15 years old, said on Monday. Legally, U.S.A. Gymnastics might be right. But can anyone credibly argue that was the morally acceptable thing to do?

How did U.S.A. Gymnastics treat the athletes who said they had been abused? It pressured them to be silent. We now know that the president at the time, Steve Penny, called the mother of Maggie Nichols the day after her coach overheard her discussing Dr. Nassar’s treatment and raised the alarm — to dissuade them from reporting the doctor directly to law enforcement. The confidential $1.25 million settlement the organization struck with McKayla Maroney required her to remain silent. It wasn’t until the model Chrissy Teigen offered to pay the $100,000 fine Ms. Maroney could be subject to for violating a nondisclosure agreement that U.S.A. Gymnastics said it would not seek money from her if she chose to give a victim impact statement.

In the meantime, all efforts were made to look out for Steve Penny. In March, half a year after the revelations about Dr. Nassar became public, Mr. Penny was allowed to resign with a $1 million severance package, according to The Wall Street Journal, about two years of his base salary.

And the U.S.A. Gymnastics board that allowed this to happen? On Monday, after a week of press attention highlighting the horrific abuse by Dr. Nassar, the chairman, vice chairman and treasurer announced they were resigning. But 18 members remain.

The young women who have given heartbreaking accounts of the sexual abuse they endured have done their part, and the media is finally giving the story — perhaps the biggest sex abuse case in sports history — the attention it deserves. But U.S.A. Gymnastics remains stuck in survival mode (as does Michigan State University, where Dr. Nassar was on the faculty and which also showed similarly egregious lapses in judgment).

During her statement last week, Ms. Raisman noted that neither U.S.A. Gymnastics nor the United States Olympic Committee had “reached out to express sympathy or even offer support — not even to ask, ‘How did this happen? What do you think we can do to help?’”

Here’s where they can start:

First: U.S.A. Gymnastics has yet to admit that its response was inadequate or hold those who were negligent accountable. Until it does, the system that allowed Dr. Nassar and others to abuse without consequence will remain. “I think U.S.A. Gymnastics for a very, very long time has focused on nothing but winning gold medals,” Shawn Johnson, a 2008 Olympic gold medalist, said in a YouTube video on Monday. “As it pertains to U.S.A. Gymnastics, every single procedure, rule, guideline, rule book you’ve ever made needs to be thrown out the window and redone.” Exactly.

Second: The board members who allowed Mr. Penny to have a cushy $1 million severance should resign. (Mr. Penny could also do the right thing and put the money toward a fund for therapy.) Former Olympians Jordyn Wieber, Aly Raisman and Jamie Dantzscher could be among those filling the new seats.

Third: Kerry Perry, the president of U.S.A. Gymnastics, should pick up the phone today and call every single one of the more than 150 women who have been abused to — at minimum — express her sorrow. She could ask for their input on what went wrong and how to improve things.

Fourth: U.S.A. Gymnastics should commission a real, independent investigation that looks at all the missteps. It should concede wrongdoing, name names and fire people who did not put the safety of the gymnasts first.

Last and most important, if most challenging: Fix the culture that allowed the abuse to flourish. It means telling coaches that physical and emotional abuse of any gymnast is not O.K. It means letting gymnasts eat separately from coaches at training camps, so that they’re not susceptible to a master manipulator like Dr. Nassar, who would sneak them treats. It means not shunning gymnasts who do poorly at meets — another form of abuse — even at a big meet like the World Championships or Olympics.

All of this might mean fewer medals and less lucrative sponsorship deals. So be it.

Liriel Higa (@iDiplomacy) is a staff editor in the Times Opinion section. From 1994 to 1998 she was a rhythmic gymnast on the United States National Team.